Thai food is a pleasure to be indulged in when visiting Thailand, and though Thai cuisine has exploded into the international market in recent years there is nothing better than sampling authentic Thai food cooked on home ground, if only because it's much cheaper! For Thai people, eating often seems to be the most important thing of the day, rather than eating just to keep fuelled for the rest of the day, their day seems to be based around thinking about, preparing and eating Thai food, and one of the commonest phrases Thais will ask each other when meeting is "gin cow leaung?" meaning "have you eaten already?".
Unlike the way western meals are served, with one course allocated to each person, in Thailand the food is all shared, so everybody can sample a little of each dish. Thai food is served as and when it is cooked and you may sit at a Thai restaurant with a group of Thais whilst one dish after the after is brought to your table, everybody taking a spoonful or two, and it will be a lot of dishes as well!
There is not so much as a starter dish, main dish, dessert, as a lot of main dishes and dessert. Main dishes consist of soups, salads rice dishes, curries, noodles and fish, and the salads may be a mixture of vegetables as well as noodles. Desserts in Thailand are traditionally healthier than you may expect in other countries, usually being fresh fruit, including mango, mangosteen, banana, pineapple, watermelons and lychees. Thai desserts will often include sweet coconut and sticky rice.
Thai food is an intriguing blend of different cultures that have all influenced Thailand at one time or another, mainly Burmese, Chinese, Malay and Indian, and different foods from different regions have their own distinctive tastes and dishes.
Thai food is a pleasure to be indulged in when visiting Thailand, and though Thai cuisine has exploded into the international market in recent years there is nothing better than sampling authentic Thai food cooked on home ground, if only because it's much cheaper! For Thai people, eating often seems to be the most important thing of the day, rather than eating just to keep fuelled for the rest of the day, their day seems to be based around thinking about, preparing and eating Thai food, and one of the commonest phrases Thais will ask each other when meeting is "gin cow leaung?" meaning "have you eaten already?". 
Unlike the way western meals are served, with one course allocated to each person, in Thailand the food is all shared, so everybody can sample a little of each dish. Thai food is served as and when it is cooked and you may sit at a Thai restaurant with a group of Thais whilst one dish after the after is brought to your table, everybody taking a spoonful or two, and it will be a lot of dishes as well! 
Thai food is an intriguing blend of different cultures that have all influenced Thailand at one time or another, mainly Burmese, Chinese, Malay and Indian, and different foods from different regions have their own distinctive tastes and dishes.
